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tv   MONEY With Melissa Francis  FOX Business  December 5, 2012 5:00pm-6:00pm EST

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why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood essure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid lo-term injury, ek immediate medical help for an erectiolasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrcrease or loss in vision or hearing. this is the age of taking action. viagra. talk to your doctor. melissa: i'm melissa francis. here's what's "money" tonight. the aarp lashing out against proposed medicare reform but it may be trying to save its own skin. generation for america president chuck woolery, yes, that chuck woolery of game show lore, is here to explain why. a group of democratic heavyweights one up the president's fiscal cliff plan. forget hitting the rich. alcohol, cigarettes, online gambling, nothing is safe.
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will the payoff be worth of the pain? we'll debate it. are the salvation army bell ringer jobs only for sexy ladies. one man claims he was fired to make way for beautiful women. is it unfair or good business? even when they say it's not it is always about "money." melissa: all right. first let's take a look at the day's market headlines. you would think the markets would stop getting faked out by the fiscal cliff optimism, would you? but apparently not. that and better than expected data from the service sector sent the dow to a one-month high. >> it was a different story for the nasdaq weighed down by tumbling shares of apple. it had a 6 1/2% decline there and it is the biggest one day loss in four years. fears are growing that the
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ipad could be losing market share to android based tablets. layoffs music to the ears of citigroup investors. the bank is slashing 11,000 jobs and taking one billion dollar fourth quarter charge as part of a plan to reorganize. shares rose more than 6% on the news. now to our top story, the huge potential conflict of interest as the app lobbies against changes in medicare when all the while what is best for them may not be best for their members. we are looking out for you here at "money." joining us now is chuck woolery, former beloved host. you're not the host of "wheel of fortune.". >> i was at one time. i was the original host when it went on the air. you're not old enough to remember. melissa: that must be it. that's it. all right. >> 1974. melissa: i think of you as the love guy that brought everyone together. "wheel of fortune" is important as well yeah. >> i wear many hats, melissa. melissa: my mistake. i apologize.
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let's get on the main issue of the day though because i think this is really interesting. aarp is out there once again lobbying and you know telling seniors who are their members what is in their best interests. when you pull things back and look behind the curtain it may not be necessarily what is best for them. we saw one example of this with obamacare when they were lobbying very hard to pass obamacare. but like you have said that was not necessarily in their members best interest. how come? >> well, 93% of the their members didn't want it and they did it anyway because it was money. so it is not about the members. look, we have 70 pages of e-mails on generation america.org. if you go there look at it in their own words and see what their ties are. they are not nonpartisan. they are in bed with this administration. that bothers me personally, just as a senior citizen. i do represent another group but we're conservative group. we're not nonpartisan. we're conservative. so we tell you who we are
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and what we stand for. the other thing is, i mean they terrorize ben nelson, who was the 60th vote and it shows up in these e-mails as part what you were talking about before. this is nothing new. melissa: what do you mean they terrorized him? whht did they do? >> they robocalled in his state and lobbied for his vote for that 60th vote to put obamacare across. that is really turned whole thing. he didn't want to vote for it to begin with. they basically pressured him into doing it. terrorized him really if you read e-mails on what they said. melissa: the bottom line on all that, one of the ways they make their money is medigap insurance they market. as a result of obamacare the premiums for medigap are expected to go up $96 a year. so they wanted, i mean at least part of their motivation had to be they wanted obamacare to go through so medigap insurance would be more expensive which is bad for their members. >> that was $96 a member. so you figure, between 3440
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million members, that is several billion dollarsing okay? -- 34 and 40 million. ways and means is coming up and this is not a bill. they're talking about this. they're talking about reducing the cost of insurance and uping what, you know, what you're going to have to pay on the other end. in other words, you got deductibles will go up a little bit and got insurance premiums which will go down a little bit. well when aarp got word of this, they immediately jumped in and said, no, you're not going to do that to us. the reason is, it is about 1.5 to 2 billion dollars a year they will lose on those premiums if the ways and means committee goes through with this. this is all about, all about trying to preserve medicare. so the government in this case is unusually probably trying to do the right thing. i don't know everything about it yet because it is still a little furry around the edges. but aarp jumped on this.
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this is not good for members. the premiums. will go down. melissa: if it went through it could be good for the members in the sense that medigap premiums would go down. >> exactly. melissa: that is something their members would really like. but once again they would not. this is the big sticking point that happens again and again. >> right. melissa: you think aarp is out there because you're a senior lobbying in your best interest. meanwhile on their website, call your congressman, do this, do that e-mails. you could be following their lead and doing things actually against your best interest. >> yeah. the problem if you don't really pay attention to what they're doing they mask it so beautifully. they really do, a good job. i watch their commercials all day long. always sounds like they're advocating for their seniors. they're advocating for dollars. melissa: yeah. >> generation america, i have to be honest with you, generation america.org will make money on medigap insurance like aarp. the difference between us and them, we're not an insurance company, they are. we will shop for the best
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insurance for our members. melissa: yeah. >> you have to decide if you're going to be an organization like that what is most important. you have to make money, that's for sure but you also represent members. you have to take care of them and watch their back. so --. melissa: be transparent. >> exactly. melissa: you're lobbying what is best for your bottom line. that is fine, be honest about it, so your members know where you really stand, right, chuck? >> absolutely. melissa: that is what it is all about. thanks so much for coming on and clearing that up. >> thank you, melissa. thank you so much for having me. melissa: you thought things with the fiscal cliff negotiations were getting crazy? you ain't seen nothing yet. >> stop instra gramming your breakfast and tweeting your first world problems and guesting on youtube so you can see gang numb style. -- "gangnam style". melissa: oh, my gosh, that is former senator alan simpson age 81 rapping to "gangnam style" hoping
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people to get involved in the fiscal cliff talks. he wants the america's youth to use the social networking prowess to get congress to take action. does even the almighty psy have the power to get everybody together? i don't know. joining us with democratic congresswoman karen bass. thank you so much for joining our show tonight. obviously alan simpson is very worried about people getting involved. do you feel like the american public is tuned into this debate or are they sick of hearing all the fighting back and forth and they're tuning out? >> you have to love the former senator. he is quite hilarious. i think people are tuned in. i think people are aware. people know that, you know, 98% of americans could have their tax rates stable and not have their taxes go up. and you know, there are some taxes that would go up if we two off the fiscal cliff. you're talking about a family that makes about $50,000 having a tax
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increase of $4,000. melissa: congresswoman, this drives me crazy. when we look at all the numbers we immediately start talking about taxes. it seems like we're looking for revenue under every single rock. that's fine. even if we raised taxes that are proposed by the white house, it will raise $82 billion. it is one half of 1% of the problem. we have a $16.3 trillion debt. all of this talk about raising taxes doesn't get us even close to solving the problem. it doesn't even start the conversation. it is not a drop in the bucket. we've got to reform our spending or grow the economy. but just raising taxes isn't going to do it. >> well, i agree with you 100%. that's why the president as well as the democrats have called for a balanced approach. so of course we can't raise enough taxes to completely deal with the deficit. and you do have to do reforms. you need to reform the tax system. you certainly need to make additional cuts. i do want to remind you though, that we have already
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voted on one trillion dollars of cuts, cuts that would cause great pain. i agree what you 100%. it can not be done. melissa: spending cutting numbers are even smaller than the tax numbers. they don't get us there either. i'm worried about stalling the economy. in the meantime when we talk about raising taxes and what it would do to small business. democrats like to point out we would only raise taxes on 3% of small business owners. >> right. melissa: but that 3% generates 50% of the income from small business. so they're hiring the majority of people. to me that is going to cost us jobs. >> well, you know what? i think that what will cost us jobs for sure is if we go off thissfiscal cliff, because it is not just about raising tacks. it is also about the debt ceiling. it is about unemployment insurance. we have number of key issues that absolutely have to be resolved byythe end of the month. i want to tell you something, in spite of what it might look i'm actually optimistic
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i think this is the way negotiations happen. melissa: you are? >> in the political world, i am, i am. in the political world, you know 30 days is a lifetime. and so i believe that we will reach agreement. now what i don't believe will happen i don't believe we'll solve all the problems in the next 30 days but i do believe we will come to enough resolution to allows melissa: on that front, on a scale of one to money, i'm hopeful here -- >> one to money. melissa: what do you think the odds that we'll get a deal done? one to five, but we call it one to moneyyhere because that is the name of the show. >> i'm with you at "money." i think it is a five. i think we'll get there. let me explain i do believe it will be a two-step process. i believe we'll come up with enough, we will resolve enough to get us through the end of the year. then after the year begins we'll deal with the big issues. for example, you can't do tax reform in 31 days. you can't look at entitlement programs in 31 days. so i do believe we will let
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the top tax rate go for 98% of the u.s. public, will not have their taxes raised. we need to take the example from california. california did it, people voted for. melissa: goodness, california will go bankrupt and they're falling off in the ocean. i would never want to imitate california. >> california. california is doing much better. melissa: you're a great sport. thanks for coming on. we appreciate your time. >> all right. melissa: many so. country's mow powerful democrats unveiled a new tax plan aiming not so much at the rich but aimed at favorite vices. would the pain be worth the gain? the government extends an olive branch to the protesters and get firebombed in return. will it swallow the morsi government and middle east security along with it? more "money" coming up. ♪ . i always wait until the last minute.
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♪. melissa: for a moment forget what you're hearing to avoid the fiscal cliff, balance the budget and decrease the deficit. there is a new idea, new, being floated by a powerful group of democrats that
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claims to overhaul the tax code with a huge payoff. who wouldn't like that? the plan purports to raise an additional 1.8 trillion dollars over the next 10 years, that is 200 dal billion more than the president proposed andd3 trillion more than the republicans in congress support. we want to get to the bottom of it on "money." here to crunch the numbers, michael lind den from the center for american progress which is the group that devised the plan. we have mary katharine ham, fox news contributor. thanks to you both for joining us. michael, since you're one of the men behind the plan, i want to go to first. break it down for me. how do you get there? >> well the basic idea we'll simplify the tax code. we're going to get rid of some of the deductions that currently benefit, they more benefit high income individuals than middle income individuals. we'll turn those into credits that will be flatter and simper peller for people to use. keep the rates under they were under president clinton
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which wail raise more money. a few other bells and whistles. a more simpler and fairer tax code that people could understand. melissa: that was a very good summary. >> thanks. melissa: mary catherine. i will throw in a few more things. there are a few sin taxes. >> yeah, there are. melissa: we sort of teased it. 50 cent increase on cigarette tax. tax on alcoholic beverages. >> already have one of those. just increasing it. melissa: we'll increase that one. why not. and small fees on internet gambling as well. what do you think of this plan, mary catherine?. >> i don't want to out right knock simplifying the tags code because i think it is something hard to do and something largely would be great for the economy and good for people in general to have the simpler code instead of 74,000 pages of crap we have right now. i do not want to knock that out of hand. when you say talk to going to the clinton rates. you're missing clinton tech boom. clinton levels of spending.
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when you take that into account it doesn't actually end up closing your gap when it comes to something which some other clinton alumni pointed out this week is a $86 trillion in unfunded liabilities for entitlements. >> that number is essentially fake. >> a lot of times when we're discussing this stuff, it is fake because government refuses to put it on the books because they don't want to acknowledge it exists. >> that is not it. >> my point being i don't want to only talk about simplifying when we're not actually closing the gap. i don't want to only talk about the fiscal cliff when nothing we're doing is coming close to deal with these issues. melissa: we talk about how hard it is to simplify the tax code. our guest before you guys said the same thing. it could be really simple. we could put out three rates for people with absolutely no deductions exceptions. if you're in this group you pay 35% or whatever. make up your number. >> right. melissa: if you're in this group pay 30, and this group pay 25. no exceptions, no deductions that would be one page tax code.
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what is wrong with that, michael. >> because we live in a complex country with complex country. you don't want people, somebody with $50,000 of emergency medical expenses exactly the same as somebody who doesn't have those things? you want to tree somebody, the fact of the matter is you want to balance between simplicity and targeting. you want to balance between fairness and revenue. you need to make these --. melissa: who dids decides what is fair? get out there and we pick winners and losers we say who's problem is worth taxpayer dollars and who's problem is not the government's problem. and that's how the what happens. >> agree. listen our tax reform plan goes through and eliminates tons of deductions and tax expenditures are special loopholes for various industries or various special tax breaks. we do a lot of that but at end of the day we will have, you do want to have a tax code that tries to distinguish between people's different life circumstances. you do want to account for
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that the. melissa: i don't know about that. >> you also want to be cognizant of the fact there will be transition costs going from what we have now to what we preposed. it is more complicated than that i think this idea you can simplify the code by one page you're missing a whole lot of really important things. melissa: mary catherine, what do you think about that? am i crazy? >> i think simpler is better. we'll always have a messy process to get there. for instance in this plan when you're talking about taking away some deductions some will be popular for folks even in the middle class or who are interested in those deductions. you will have to deal with that problem. another thing i would note, this plan does deal with reforming capital-gains taxs. >> yes it does. >> by jacking them up which makes us much less competitive with the rest of the world. we already have very high capital-gains taxs. >> hold on not saving and investing. let me finish my thought. >> hold on, mary catherine. the our plan put rates signed into law by ronald reagan in 1986.
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melissa: got to go. i want to really quickly. why do we continue to talk about raising taxes and we're not talking about cutting spending? we can't get there. >> we never are, are we? >> sure. the tax reform plan is part of a larger $4 trillion deficit reduction plan has spending cuts in it. you need to do it in a balanced way. 485 billion in medicare. >> i'm sorry. 385 dal billion on top of savings we already have in medicare. melissa: i would love for both of you to come back. we have to do more in depth. you're fantastic. >> thanks for having me. melissa: here is the question of the day. could have done that the whole show. do you support higher taxes on cigarettes, alcohol and online gambling to reduce the deficit? we want to hear what you think. like us on facebook.co facebook.com/melissafrancisfox or follow me on twitter at melissaafrancis. egyptian president morsi attempts to restore order on
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cairo streets. protesters respond with molotov cocktails. has he lost control? details coming up next. >> military wants to spend more dollars on renewable energy. senator james inhofe says they're dumping taxpayyr dollars overboard. i hate that. do i ever have too much spending. i certainly do
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melissa: now to the latest from the middle east. huge clashes in cairo as rifle factions hurled firebombs and stones outside the palace today. this just as president morsi returned to the palace. he reportedly fled the premises yesterday after thousands protested nearby. still at issue though is morsi's new constitution. but also at issue here in the u.s., how will this impact our foreign aid to
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the region? with me now is fox news middle east analyst walid phares. welcome back to the program. thank you for coming on. >> thank you, melissa. melissa: yeah. let's get right to it. what is your impression going on today? with him back in the palace is that significant? >> it was absolutely significant he was forced out of the palace. imagine the first democratically elected president it egypt, who happened tt be muslim brotherhood and forced out that demonstrated against him are more liberal. middle society, women, labor and minorities. that is indicative morsi is not representative of the consensus that we thought he would represent and that is the crisis that will be on for a long period of time. melissa: as we watch all these pictures go by and we know how some people feel about the west and america and especially morsi, we considered the idea we're sending $1.6 billion in aid to egypt every year. now europe is calling on the u.s. to stop that.
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what do you think about that? what is our best move at this point? >> well, let's remember that those 1.6 more or less billion dollars that we've been sending to the egyptian government, to mubarak for last 30 years or so, were sent for egypt to protect the peace with israel. to make sure the suez canal is always open for international trade and maintain security and friendship with the united states. now that morsi and the muslim brotherhood and salafists allies have form ad government, if they win this round against civil society they're going to move egypt toward more extreme allies. eventually the allies of morsi, salafists who attacked us ends at benghazi will turn against us. to make sure the $1.6 billion any dollars sent to egypt will go to a government that remains our ally and protector of freedom and democracy in the country. melissa: how do we do that? is that possible? if we revoke the money are
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we making the situation even more hostile? like you said the suez canal is very important. morsi was there in, you know, brokering whatever, i mean now in retrospect we look back and say how much good was he really doing? how much was done by the u.s. when we talk about the dispute between israel and hamas. he was part of that negotiation. so i don't know. what is it worth to us? >> that's a slice. what morsi want us to perceive him the way he wants us to perceive him? he allowed weapons to go to gaza. he said i'm the one sponsoring the cease-fire. he wanted the money to go to his government. and why? he will use the cash to get more influence over military in egypt, over civil society. there is nothing guaranteed as long as the muslim brotherhood have this agenda we know all about that he will continue with this policy. the best guaranty would have the constitution to bind those extremes and on the other hand a consensus in
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egypt. we don't have a consensus. half or more is rising against morsi. the more democratic side of the society seems to be against more sis. -- moresy. melissa: what is your best policy here? >> morsi, if you want money you have to sit down with us and your opposition. this is a way to corner him. let's have a triangular. liberal civil society, women, what have you. and morsi and allies on the other hand. we would like as a congress first and administration listen to your debate. who will give us better in terms of american-egyptian alliances and democracy and freedom in the region. melissa: walid, thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. melissa: up next on "money", the u.s. navy steams ahead to adopt renewable fuels but senator james inhofe says it is about to sink boatloads of taxpayer cash. is he saying a wind powered aircraft carrier is a bad idea? i don't understand. he is here with all the details. plus there are black
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markets for guns, cigarette and gold. but for hey hay? they have been hit by a string of robberies across the country. piles of money and hay straight ahead. ♪ . she keeps you guessing. it's pa of what you love about her. but your erecte sfunctio- you know, that could beu a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more coident in your ability toe ready. and the to treat ed andthe only daily edsymptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditionsnd medications, and ask if your heart is healt enough for sexual activity. do not te cialis if you take nitres f chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may inclu headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache.
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melissa: so the pentagon get as green light to spend valuable defense funds on things like efforts to make biofuels. the military is focused on alternative energy sources faced constant debate in congress this year and i think rightly some republican senator james inhofe is a member of the armed services committee. senator, welcome back to the show. when i go through these stats it is really staggering. you look at the air force which paid $59 a gallon for 11,000 gallons of alternative fuel. the navy spent $12 million on biofuels at a rate of $26 a gallon. at a time we're talking about raising taxes and the fiscal cliff and what financial problems we're in this country, i read these numbers i want to tear my heart out. how do you feel? >> melissa, it is worse than that. in '09 he had the navy pay $424 a gallon for 20,000 gallons.
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that is fuel on the market you could buy for $3 a gallon. $424 a gallon. in mind, this president has had a war on our defense system. he disarmed america. he has done away with our brigade combat teams, our ships, our f-22s, c-17s, future combat systems. he uses the excuse. no, i have not reduced the budget for the defense. but what he has done, melissa is move his green agenda into the, under the defense so we're paying for all this. now, senator mccain and i took this out. we had two changes that we made in the law to keep them from doing that. one was a section that said you can no longer use our readiness dollars to buy all this fuel and all this stuff. and then, we also have had a prohibition against using defense dollars to build refineries. that can be done in the private sector. well on the floor there was an amendment, pretty much
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down party lines. mark udall had one amendment and hagen had the other one, to kill our efforts, to keep them from using our defense dollars for a green agenda. melissa: does anybody at the white house understand when people are upset having their taxes raised, there are a lot of people out there that want to raise everybody's taxes when you get upset about having your own taxes raised we see ridiculous spending like this going on. if you can't spend my tax dollars responsibly for things that make sense, i don't want to send you anymore. does anyone get that sentiment? >> no, they don't get that sentiment. that is the problem. the excuse they use for this. this is kind of interesting. this will wean us off middle eastern oil. we won't use petroleum-based fuels. that is not true at all. if you want to get off middle eastern oil, all he would have to do is open up the united states to exploit our own -- we're the only
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country in the world that doesn't exploit our own resources. and we have more recoverable reserves in coal, oil and gas in america than any other country has. we could actually be totally independent in a matter of if we just opened up our own. melissa: i know you're going out. one of the moves is to go out and tell people about this so they understand that we're spending $59 a gallon on fuel, money that we don't have. is there any way to really stop it in its tracks? this kind of spending makes me really want to tear my hair out? >> it should want to make you tear your hair out. way back in '09, the first big bunch, that is where he came up with the i'm sorry, the $424 a gallon. we said it. we talked about it. there is lot of interest. my people in my state of oklahoma, they're outraged but somehow this just doesn't seem to get out. and we have other things. let's remember, when republicans were majority in the house and the senate and
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we had clinton, who was a democrat, we put work requirements in welfarr. we cut the number of people on welfare down from about five million to three million. then obama comes in and, so he reinstates it and takes the work requirements out and now people are outraged because we have these people on food stamp. melissa: stop this one next. this one is absolutely insane. thank you so much for coming on tonight. we appreciate your time. >> you bet. melissa: time for today's fuel gauge report. freshwater forecasts expected decline in inventories sent natural gas stocks soaring. a cold front expected to move into the u.s. raising the outlook for natural gas demand. oh, no. freeport-mcmoran is plunging head first into oil. the mining giant is buying plains exploration and mcmoran exploration for a total of $9 billion in cash and stock. freeport will also assume about $11 billion in debt.
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u.s. oil production reached its highest level in almost 15 years in september. new data from the energy information administration says u.s. crude output averaged 6.5 million barrels a day. that is up 16% year-over-year. thank you shale and fracking. all right, coming up, it is a great hay robbery. the fallout from this summer's drought takes some bizarre twists. i shouldn't laugh. this is very serious. analyst it black market for hay across the country. details coming up next. at the end of the day it is all about hay.
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♪ . melissa: hold on to your hay. this summer's drought still burning farmers after causing a big rise in prices. the average bale of hay is now $80. you have $50 since before the drought. up $50. it was 30. now it is 80. can you believe that? because of that hay farmers in the midwest are facing a serious problem, hay thieves.
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they're taking thousands of pounds of hay. this is probably problem and here to tell us about is missouri farm president blake hours. i don't mean to make light of this, but when we hearing about hay thieves it sounded ridiculous. when you realize how much it is worth and how big of a problem it is i can see why it is happening. how big of a problem is it, blake? >> missouri is made up of 114 counties. each hay theft is handled by the local sheriff. so i don't have any, don't have any statewide statistics but ccording to the ag task force that handles the ag crime the third leading thing stolen from farmers in missouri after cattle rustling and, and metal theft or salvage theft. melissa: serious enough problem that we were reading about one instance where local authorities hid a fps tracker inside a bale of hay
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they thought would get stolen because this is big enough problem they're out there working on this. he programmed it so that it would call his cell phone or the bail was moved. sure enough they found hay thieves stealing a bale of hay. they're trying to get ahead of the problem. it is serious enough that law enforcement is trying to lay traps to catch hay thieves. >> one bale of hay looks pretty much like another. and we, i start talking to a neighbor of a friend of mind said he was eating, sitting in his front room at 2:00 on a sunday afternoon and saw a load of hay go by, well over a thousand dollars worth of hay. boy that is good-looking hay. the next day he found out it was his. melissa: oh. >> not only that did they steel his hay you need hydraulic or electric bail loader to load the hay. they used his bail loader to load the hay and when they were done they stole his hay
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loader as well. melissa: insult to injury. one shot in texas they stole 126 bales of hay. it was $126,000 loss in one shot. seems like someone would notice though if a thief came by and stole 150 bales? >> there is hay moving all the time for legitimate reasons. so unless you or your neighbor sees them in your field and you know they don't belong, once it gets on the roadway no way to know whether hay purchased moving to another farm or your hay. melissa: yeah. >> and a lot of these are located, the hay is stored in places far away from where anyone lives. they may not find it. i'm absolutely certain most people in central and southern missouri have a little bit of grass growing now. we've had a little bit of rain and they're not checking their hay piles every day. when cold weather hits and have to start feeding again they will find the hay is gone. melissa: a whole bunch of it is missing. very serious part of this story, beyond the threat the idea of a bale of hay has
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gone from costing $0 to now $80 because of the drought. that has to be a very serious problem for farmers and will ultimately be a very serious problem for everyone else who then buys products from those farmers where either they're forced out of business or forced to charge much higher prices, right? >> yeah. what happened this summer because after shortage of hay and high cost, people sold their cows. so those cows woold typically have had a calf this spring. that would hit grocery sales in the stores 18 months to two years. instead they went directly to market. what you get in one of the situations, you got a short-term price decrease because peopll liquidate the cow herd. you see in couple years increase in price of beef. it is coming your way. melissa: blake, thanks for educating us. you're very charming. a topic us city folk don't know a lot about at least me. a lot of viewers are probably laughing at me pight now. for me this was an education. thank you. >> you bet, thank you. melissa: next up the fiscal
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cliff leads to a housing boom for one of the wealthiest areas in the country. i guess someone has to come out ahead in this whole mess. we'll explain it coming up. you can never have too much beachfront property. ♪ . ♪
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melissa: it is time for a little fun with "spare change." today we are joined with julie he's supposed to be out there right now, but i think he is lost in the building somewhere. so we will start without him. i think he might join us in progress. melissa: to be fair, we did change studios. so it's possible that he is sitting in another studio. he might be drumming his fingers. >> did you purposely toned to go to the wrong studio? [laughter] melissa: first up, off, there is a selling spree in the hamptons. buyers are worried that their capital gains taxes will rise next month. more than 30 big-ticket properties, which is a lot from this area, from $1 million going
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to $25 million will close before the end of the year, reducing asking prices. is this a trend everywhere? is makes perfect sense. you will realize their capital gains. oh, look at who it is. it is dennis kneale. come on over. we will talk about this hamptons spinmeister getting settled in. melissa: okay so god for bid that you make any money. [talking over each other] so they're going to buy this and hold it for 10 years. >> when you going to do all summer long if you can get your state in the hamptons? >> let's remember, at your old studio -- nobody told me where to go. usually people here tell me where to go all the time. >> i think it is $250,000 of
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profit on your home sale is utterly and entirely tax-free. so this is a problem for the multimillion dollar homes and. >> are you ever going to find a place in hamptons? >> no. the biggest thing is that warren buffett is just wrong. and he lied or he did nobody was talking about when he said in "the new york times" if you have a good investment decision, you are not going to make it regarding any change in tax policy. we are seeing one of the biggest intergenerational transfers of wealth. wealth managers are built up with people trying to transfer millions to their kids before the taxes go up in the estate tax goes up. basically, we could be looking at a private stimulus package happening. >> you are talking about transferring 25 million-dollar houses from one rich person to another, right?
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>> you are buying stuff back and forth. the parents to give that to their kids. the estate tax is 35% on everything over $5 million and agosta 55%. anything over $1 million. it is horrible. melissa: dennis needs a break after running the 12 flights of stairs. this time this item is for christmas. this starbucks card will set you back $450. the card itself costs $50, then the card itself is $450 for the gift card. you cannot buy them at the store coming have to give them from gil.com. >> of i spent $450, it will be almost a full pair of christian louis vuitton shoes.
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i'm not sure they are seen holding this card. >> a person is going to say my gold card -- what happens if you violate 10 cups of coffee, do you get a gold card membership? >> the highest profit margin will be on the copy. how much is that slipups stainless steel costs and make? melissa: coming up next, a guy was fired. he was told young and cute girls bring in more money than men. he was also told another man was let go and that the salvation army was putting out an advertisement geertz towards women.
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>> i will still pay the money to have those people stop ringing that bell to if they are volunteers, there is no such thing like discrimination among volunteers. go ring the bell with some attractive women. [talking over each other] [talking over each other] melissa: i have seen my mother in law in florida. >> she is out there ringing the bell. melissa: moving on from a 19-year-old girl stole a car and robbed the bank. you won't believe what she did not. she posted this video of herself on youtube where she says she robbed a bank and she flashes the six grand. what an idiot. police arrest or. the same clothes she was wearing in the video. what do you

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